Uncut Gems - Original Motion Picture Soundtrack
Since his monumental 2015 album *Garden of Delete*, Daniel Lopatin’s work as Oneohtrix Point Never has been increasingly intertwined with experimental video, so perhaps it’s no surprise that the New York electronic musician continues to make inroads in Hollywood. Following his soundtrack to the 2017 film *Good Time*, Lopatin returns to the screen—for the first time under his own name—with the score to another Josh and Benny Safdie project, the Adam Sandler-starring thriller *Uncut Gems*. No matter what the style, Lopatin’s work always sparkles with a rare luster, which makes him the perfect choice for a film about a high-end jeweler whose life is unraveling. Certain ideas here will be familiar to fans of his early work. Arpeggiated synths burble away, otherworldly and even a little forbidding; the droning “The Fountain” recalls *Replica*’s eerie sample play; the flutes of “Pure Elation” touch upon the hyperreal new-age sound design of his collaboration with Tim Hecker. But passages represent significant departures: An operatic chorus ominously rears its head now and then, while the churning “School Play” might be the closest Lopatin has ever come to making actual techno. It’s all shot through with a darkly opulent streak, as dangerous as it is alluring.
The Safdie brothers’ Adam Sandler vehicle is replete with outsized personalities, but Oneohtrix Point Never’s anxiety-stoking score makes a confident bid for a supporting role in its own right.
Oneohtrix Point Never (Daniel Lopatin) soundtracks a jewellery salesman played by Adam Sandler on a bad trip for the Uncut Gems movie.
Lopatin, AKA Oneohtrix Point Never, has created a soundtrack for the Safdie brothers’ latest that brings its whole roiling humanity brilliantly to life